Page 112 of Blind Prophet

“As one of my father’s employees. Not as…” I let it trail. Not as a person. Definitely not as a sibling. “He didn’t seem interested, but then he changed his mind. We’ll go to dinner next week.”

“Wow.”

“Precisely. And now I’m wondering how many children Dad might have.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s possible, right? That he’s got a slew of kids with NDAs threatening trust funds if they speak up? It’s conceivable. In retrospect, it’s surprising he didn’t force me to sign an NDA.”

“No, only your wife.”

She’s bitter. Interesting. She never seemed angry before about the NDA.

Her hand covers the door handle. One foot out the door, so to speak. Understandably. The Moore family has baggage.

“Geoffrey seemed incredulous that I never questioned if a man like my father hadn’t fathered more children. Perhaps I was naïve. Did you ever suspect?”

“I don’t think…” Her head shakes slightly. “That wouldn’t be a normal thought process.”

“He’s a known philanderer. He said my mother left us, but I assumed she left because he cheated.”

“I’m surprised you’ve never reached out to her.”

Caroline wanted me to reach out to her, probably in the hope I had one parent she could warm to. But the woman left me with him…

“You know, her lawyers probably didn’t stand a chance against his.” That’s a point Caroline has made multiple times.

My mother took a payment for giving up custody. Caroline knows this. It’s immaterial. And it’s an old, long-buried circular disagreement that doesn’t need to be unearthed.

I pop open the custom-fitted compartment in the armored SUV and remove one of our proprietary tracking devices—similar to an Airtag but with military-grade encryption and direct satellite uplink.

“Will you do me a favor?”

She studies the silver disc.

“Will you carry this? It’s like an air tag.”

“You keep a stash in your car?”

“I throw them in bags, just in case someone tries to nab a laptop. It’s… I keep spares in my vehicles.”

“You want to track me?”

“It’s a precaution. Nick said to keep you here. It’s…probably entirely unnecessary. As you said, countries the world over have teams working to prevent a major attack. But if one occurs…”

“If there’s a blackout, you won’t be able to find me.”

“You forget, I control the most sophisticated network of tracking satellites ever built. Our quantum mesh network has redundancies even the Pentagon doesn’t know about. I’ll find you.” The words come out more possessive than intended, but when you’ve built a reliable global communications infrastructure, it’s hard to be casual about its capabilities.

“All right.” I watch as she tucks the silver disk into her handbag.

“Here’s another one to keep on your person.” Her eyes widen. “It’s too easy to forget to move it from a handbag. Take two. It’ll make you more cognizant.”

She’s thinking about saying no, but I stop that by tugging her to me and covering her lips with mine. She softens and arches closer. I love how her body responds to mine. I always have.

“Next week, can I take you on a date?”

“I might be working a lot.”

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